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Reading a Poem is a Short Commitment

Or a lifelong one.

By Natalie WilkinsonPublished 3 years ago 1 min read
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Reading a Poem is a Short Commitment
Photo by Johannes Roth on Unsplash

Reading a poem is a short commitment; or a lifelong one.

The words are there, black on the page, secretly engaged in metamorphosis, until they no longer hold the shape you thought they had.

Correlations between heaven and earth have shifted. The entire constellation of words expands endlessly into the universe. The moon has traversed the night sky and landed elsewhere.

Revisit a poem you have loved. It won't be where you left it. Find it again. Pick it up, feel its weight, put it down. What does it say to you now?

In a poem you can walk facing backwards, but you can never go back. There are places within it you can only visit at certain times in your life.

You can walk facing forward, dragging the poem along behind you. It will change while you aren’t looking. There is some danger in this, it may wrap itself around your ankles and trip you up when you least expect it.

I say gauge your task carefully when choosing a poem to read, you run the risk of never finishing.

inspirational
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About the Creator

Natalie Wilkinson

Writing. Woven and Printed Textile Design. Architectural Drafting. Learning Japanese. Gardening. Not necessarily in that order.

IG: @maisonette _textiles

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